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Wednesday, February 15, 2012

What. A. Day.

Most days with my kids are pretty simple. They are almost always tedious, but fun. There is the usual day to day things; getting dressed, making meals, reading stories, going to the park. It sounds easy, but the multitasking involved in feeding, dressing, teaching, herding, and entertaining three small children for twelve straight hours without a break every day is astounding.

Even a simple task like folding a basket of laundry becomes a test of your ability to maintain calm and patience. You fold a pair of pants and then you hear some shouting from the next room. You go and investigate. When you return the baby has gotten into the basket and unfolded the pants and is throwing the clothes all over the room. So you stop that little game and gather everything back up. You attempt it once again and this time you get halfway through the basket before you notice that someone needs a fresh diaper. You take this child to get a diaper change and when you come back the basket has been dumped and the older child is sitting in it pretending to be an astronaut. So you give up and leave the laundry on the floor for three weeks. The floor is now your dresser.

And that is how it goes for pretty much every simple task. At least for me. I know some things will get easier as they get older. They will be able to do their own laundry and help out with the simple things. They will have more ownership and responsibility over their own things. I will be able to delegate more to them. But for now it really does seem like I will just never catch up. I know some parents who are able to juggle all these tasks with what seems like ease, but I know that they are like me and are making tough choices everyday about what they can and cannot manage.

Today was a tough day for me for many reasons and I have been doing some thinking about how I want to be interacting with my children so that the important day to day tasks get done, but that my children are still getting the attention they need.